Retirement Benefits Officer

Retirement Benefit Officer

The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) is the fiduciary responsible for administering the IPERS Trust Fund. IPERS members represent most of Iowa’s hard-working public sector employees, including educators, first responders, law enforcement and more. IPERS’ mission is to support its membership – Iowa’s public workforce – with the prudent management of the IPERS Trust Fund. At IPERS, we believe that every employee plays an integral role in our success. We take pride in maintaining our status as one of the nation’s most well-funded public retirement plans. We are seeking a detail-oriented and service-driven Retirement Benefits Officer to join our team. In this multi-faceted role, you will serve as a primary consultant for IPERS members, guiding them through complex pre-retirement planning interviews. You will perform benefit calculations, process critical workflows and applications, and manage front-line risk mitigation. By combining deep technical knowledge of pension policies with empathetic communication, you will directly help members optimize their benefits and navigate their retirement journeys securely.

What You’ll Do: As part of the IPERS’ team, you will serve as a vital problem solver and knowledgeable resource for our members by blending top-tier customer service with analytical precision, mastering complex pension policies to guide members through critical life and retirement decisions. This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious professional looking to build a meaningful career in public service and financial administration.

• Member Consultation: Consult with IPERS members via telephone, email, virtually, and in person to provide accurate, timely responses to retirement benefit program inquiries.
• Application & Workflow Processing: Process retirement benefit workflows, forms, and applications to initiate or terminate benefits. This includes reviewing submissions for accuracy, completeness, and approving, rejecting, or returning them to applicants.
• Quality Assurance & Peer Review: Perform comprehensive peer reviews of completed member applications prior to the final payroll disbursement process to ensure absolute precision.
• Retirement Planning Support: Conduct member interviews to gather information, assist with pre-retirement financial planning, and compare complex variables (age, termination date, taxes, life expectancy) to help members optimize their benefits.
• Calculations & Analysis: Perform complex retirement benefit-related calculations both manually and using the IPERS pension administration system.
• Risk & Fraud Mitigation: Provide front-line risk mitigation and fraud prevention through strict identity authentication and verification processes.
• Policy Application: Apply an in-depth technical understanding of policies regarding taxes, estates, qualified domestic relations orders (QDRO), power of attorney (POA), and USERRA to quality assurance and appeals tasks.
• Communications & Records Management: Create formal correspondence, reports, and estimates for members, initiate records management processes for applications, and document engagement narratives in the pension system.
• Technical Support: Troubleshoot and provide technical assistance to members navigating the online Member Self-Service digital portal.

What We Are Looking For:

• Meticulous Attention to Detail: Exceptional ability to review forms, catch discrepancies, and audit financial applications or workflows prior to processing.
• Analytical Mindset: Ability to learn, interpret, and apply complex technical policies, state/federal regulations, and legal documents (POAs, QDROs).
• Mathematical Aptitude: Comfort performing manual hand calculations and navigating database administration systems.
• Communication Excellence: Strong written and verbal skills, with the empathy required to guide members through sensitive financial planning scenarios.
• Security & Compliance Conscious: High integrity regarding identity verification, fraud prevention, and strict records management protocols.
• Problem-Solving Skills: A proactive approach to troubleshooting technical portal issues and resolving member inquiries efficiently.

If you wish to review a copy of the Position Description Questionnaire, please contact [email protected] To ensure full consideration for this position, all requested materials must be completed and uploaded through the NEOGov online application process. Final candidates will be subject to a background check. Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday; some nights and weekends, occasional in-state and out-of-state travel.

A successful candidate will bring or have the ability and desire to learn:

• Public Sector Pension Knowledge: The foundational structure of the IPERS retirement plan, including specialized coverage rules, benefit classes, and alternative calculation variables.
• Complex Policy Interpretation: How to accurately read, analyze, and apply intricate federal and state regulations, tax structures, and legal documents such as Powers of Attorney (POA), QDROs, and USERRA guidelines.
• Pension System Administration: Fluency in navigating specialized pension management software, processing digital workflows, and accurately troubleshooting user issues on the Member Self-Service digital portal.
• Auditing & Peer Review Standards: Best practices for meticulous quality assurance, document verification, and cross-checking data to authorize complex financial disbursements safely.
• Comprehensive Records Management: Principles of secure information retention, organizing applicant files, and writing clear, professional narrative summaries within system records.
• Technical Risk & Fraud Mitigation: Advanced identity authentication processes and front-line security protocols designed to prevent fraudulent benefit distributions.
• Pre-Retirement Counseling Strategies: How to balance mathematical data analysis with high-empathy communication to guide members smoothly through sensitive, life-altering financial decisions.

Why you’ll love this role: Make a Meaningful Impact

• Direct Community Impact: Play a foundational role in securing the financial future of Iowa’s public servants, including teachers, firefighters, and state workers.
• Financial Stewardship: Directly protect and optimize the Trust Fund dollars that secure the retirement futures of thousands of Iowans.

Professional Growth & Non-Traditional Leadership

• Paid, Comprehensive Training: Build specialized expertise through robust, structured onboarding designed to set you up for long-term success.
• Become an Internal Authority: Position yourself as an indispensable asset and the trusted internal authority on retirement policies, complex calculations, member processing workflow optimization, and fraud prevention.
• National Collaboration: Expand your horizons by collaborating directly with industry experts from across the country.

Our Culture & Environment

• A Culture of Support: Work in a highly collaborative, positive, and team-oriented environment that prioritizes clear communication, mentoring, and psychological safety.
• Inspiring Colleagues: Learn and grow every day alongside talented, passionate coworkers who are deeply dedicated to the IPERS mission.

Total Rewards & Better Work-Life Balance

• Reclaim Your Personal Time: Balance your life with predictable, stable scheduling, no required weekends, generous vacation accrual, separate sick leave, and 9 paid statutory holidays every year.
• Exceptional Health Benefits: Protect yourself and your family with comprehensive, highly subsidized medical, dental, and life insurance plans.
• Double Retirement Security: Secure your own future with the elite IPERS pension plan alongside optional deferred compensation retirement programs.
• Extra Perks: Take advantage of exclusive employee discounts from a wide variety of participating vendors.
• Competitive salary and benefits package:

https://das.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/hr/documents/employment/Benefits_Beyond_the_Paycheck.pdf (Download PDF reader) (Download PDF reader) E-Verify and Right to Work The State of Iowa participates in E-Verify, a federal program that helps employers confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. Within the required timeframe, new hires will be verified through the E-Verify system to ensure authorization to work in the United States. The State of Iowa also complies with the federal Right to Work laws, which protect employees’ rights to work without being required to join a labor organization. For more information, please visit www.e-verify.gov. Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor's Degree;OR

one year of full-time experience in job interviewing referral and/or placement, credit investigation, collection work or related public contact work obtaining, analyzing and/or evaluating data may be substituted for each 30 semester hours of the required education to a maximum substitution of four years;OR

employees with current continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes the equivalent of two years of full-time work as a Retirement Benefits Technician.

For additional information, please click on this link to view the job description.